MULENGA Sata was the first to declare his presidential ambitions immediately after the death of his father, President Michael Sata, because he believed the Patriotic Front (PF) belonged to his family and not to the people of Zambia, says Julius Komaki.

Mr Komaki said when President Sata died in London in October, 2014, Mulenga immediately started calling some people in Lusaka while in the United Kingdom, dictating that the party should start organising for his succession because according to him, he was the heir to the throne.

Mr Komaki alleged that a cartel that had held late President Sata hostage and took control of most of the sensitive security State institutions thought they could use Mulenga Sata to continue with their ambitions but that Zambians quickly thwarted the scheme by rejecting the former Lusaka Province minister as his father’s successor.

He recalled that when the body of President Sata arrived at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport, Mulenga, instead of showing a solemn face, was happily campaigning among his supporters who were clad in T-shirts printed ‘‘Mulenga Sata for President’’.

Mr Komaki said Mulenga saw an opportunity to become president of the PF and of Zambia after the death of his father. Instead of mourning, he embarked on a campaign to be anointed to take over from late President Sata and had printed campaign materials while the nation was in a state of mourning.

“Immediately President Sata died in London, Mulenga Sata who was in the United Kingdom started calling Lusaka, dictating that the PF should start preparing his succession because he thought he was the rightful heir to the throne.

‘‘In fact, the cartel that held President Sata hostage encouraged Mulenga Sata to go for the presidency because it believed through him it would maintain its hegemony and continue abusing State security institutions and installations to their advantage. Zambians realised this and immediately rejected Mulenga Sata, thereby thwarting the schemes of the cartel,’’ Mr Komaki said.

Mr Komaki said Mulenga Sata had always been a failure politically and that he had risen to his current status not because of his efforts and achievements but because of the name of late President Sata.

Mr Komaki stated that the cartel later realised that Mulenga Sata was a failed project and attempted to anoint former first lady Christine Kaseba, who without reflection, declared her presidential ambitions shortly after her husband had been interred, an act that shocked Zambians to the core.

He said Zambians had not recovered from the shock that former first lady Kaseba could ever think of taking over from her husband as president when she was mourning, an act, he said, was not only unZambian but was culturally and traditionally an abomination.

“After the scheme to install Madam Kaseba flopped, Dr Guy Scott was forced to fire President Edgar Lungu as secretary general of the PF at the time in an attempt to bring back Wynter Kabimba who had previously been fired by President Sata as Justice minister and secretary general of the PF. Zambians rose and the country was tense and the decision to fire President Lungu as secretary general was immediately reversed,” Mr Komaki said.

He said Mulenga Sata was an ungrateful man who had attained most of his political positions purely on humanitarian grounds as he had failed to perform in all his appointments.